The Laboratory ...

On advertising, creativity, selling art - online and otherwise, website design for photographers and whatever else is on my mind.

Where we experiment with spells, incantations, potions and traditional advertising techniques and share the results

I used to work in an agency with a fellow who was fond of saying "it's advertising, not brain surgery." But in a sense he was wrong for advertising is changing a person's perception, which is only done by affecting the brain.

This is what we've learned, what works and what doesn't. It's where we look at questions and find solutions and explain why we do what we do.

You'll find several articles where I explain what I've done for ourselves, for after all, I was my first client. It should be of some comfort to you that I experiment on myself, before taking what I learn and apply it to my clients.

You'll find journal entries, case histories and whatever else comes to mind. Some of this may apply to you and if so, you're welcome to take what you need and employ this knowledge to your own advertising and marketing.

And of course, if you're so inclined, we're available to help.

Let's talk

As a website designer, you’d expect my answer to this question to be yes. It’s in my best interest after all to sell you my services. A good example of that was a site I built for the local Kiwanis Club. It was a nice looking site and did everything it was designed to do…. …Continue Reading

Adding new SmugMug features to a London photo booth service which takes sets and costumes to an outrageous level SmugMug had upgraded their platform and required all their clients to switch over. Those with a lot of customization found themselves in a mind and reached out for help. One of those was Phototheatre, who… …Continue Reading

Knowing their target audience lets benefits/insurance broker step away from cliched industry graphic standard Website graphics for insurance and benefits brokers are nearly always the same – happy, healthy faces, multicultural and without any real appeal to anyone. Think about it for a second … does anyone look at generic stock photos of generic… …Continue Reading

Like comedy, writing a headline that sells your product is hard Writing headlines, like comedy, is hard. Particularly if one tries to be clever, cute or otherwise find a way to generate interest in the ad, rather than the product itself. But I will admit that if you’ve got years to work the joke, it… …Continue Reading

How many great ideas have you had that never happened because you never tried? How many great ideas have you had which just plain sucked? God knows I’ve had some real howlers in my day. Sometimes what you need is a fresh set of eyes and ears. Someone who deals with photographers nearly every day of… …Continue Reading

The client who won’t take no for an answer breaks the boundaries and teaches me the value of saying “why not?” Fashion photography is magic. It’s perfect down to the last detail, but the scenes they capture exist only long enough to take the photo. It’s a make believe world, not something of permanence. So… …Continue Reading

The evolution of a photographer’s website, from black to white, to a site that truly reflects the artist I’ve worked with Viktoria for several years now, through a couple of iterations of her site. It went from black to white and the images started to breathe. British by birth, Canada is her adopted home and with… …Continue Reading

Art Store Fronts has brought a lot of good ideas to photographer’s websites. How can you incorporate those into SmugMug to boost print sales? Over the past few months I’ve done some soul searching about whether to stick with SmugMug, or switch to the competition. I have to admit, none of the competition really excited… …Continue Reading